Spurs focus in romp of Sixers, don’t cut ex-aide slack

PHILADELPHIA — The Spurs were off on another one of their patented tears early in Monday’s 109-85 victory at Philadelphia.

Tony Parker was going all Cuisinart on the 76ers’ young defense, slicing and dicing his way to the basket. Danny Green was knocking down 3-pointers like it was June in Miami. The ball was ping-ponging around the Wells Fargo Center, moving almost audibly, the way it does when the Spurs’ offense is humming.

Somewhere, Sixers coach Brett Brown had seen all this before.

“It’s a machine,” said Brown, a Spurs staff member for 11 seasons before taking the Philly job last summer. “That thing just moves along and chugs along, and they’ll bang out another 50 (wins) this year and be amongst the NBA’s best again.”

With still a ways to go to claim their 15th straight 50-victory season, the Spurs took No. 7 on Monday night with the kind of calm, cool efficiency not every team might bring to the second night of a back-to-back against a rebuilding team in a half-empty gym.

Green had 18 points, including a 5-of-7 showing from 3-point range, Parker pocketed 14 points and nine assists in less than 29 minutes, and three other players scored in double figures as the Spurs rang up their second consecutive resounding victory.

A night earlier, the Spurs rang up a 120-89 de-pantsing of New York, then took the train south to Philadelphia to smack the Sixers around.

The Spurs led 31-13 after the first quarter and never let up long enough to give the callow Sixers hope.

“That’s hard to do,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s why I felt good about the game. They were serious for 48 minutes. As everyone knows, anything can happen in an NBA game. Things can happen, and they can come back. We didn’t let it happen.”

The Spurs won without Tim Duncan, who received a day off from Popovich at the end of a five-games-in-seven-nights stretch.

They improved to 7-1 with prime 3-point shooting (13 of 28), ball movement (29 assists) and defense, limiting the Sixers to a season-low 85 points.

Philly’s Michael Carter-Williams, the rookie guard from Syracuse who had taken the NBA by storm in his first seven games, ended with eight points on 2-of-11 shooting for his worst scoring night of the season.

“We wanted to take the air out of them a little bit, take energy,” said Green, who was 11 of 16 from beyond the 3-point arc on the two-game road trip. “We wanted to be smart with the ball, execute and not give them any light or hope to get back in the game.”

Though Popovich looked forward to dining with Brown after arriving Sunday night, the game wasn’t one he had circled on his calendar.

It’s no fun, he said, coaching against a close friend.

“You have a weird feeling either way,” Popovich said. “If you win, you sort of feel bad. If you lose, you’re sort of happy for the other guy. Which is also a weird feeling.”

It was an odd feeling, too, for Spurs backup guard Patty Mills, who also played for Brown on the Australian national team. Before the game, Mills joked he had nothing to say to his former coach.

“He’s the enemy now,” Mills said.

And a dangerous one, if you had asked the Spurs beforehand.

The Sixers (4-4) are clearly rebuilding, with Brown saying before the season he counted about six sure NBA players on his roster. But Philly was good enough to shock defending champion Miami on opening night and good enough to beat Derrick Rose-led Chicago after that.

It quickly became clear Monday the Spurs weren’t about to join the list of elite teams to be ambushed by the 76ers.

With the Spurs already ahead 57-38 at halftime, Kawhi Leonard put the game out of reach in the third, scoring 11 of his 13 points to push his team’s lead to 29.

“I was really pleased with the effort,” Popovich said. “It was the fifth game in seven nights, and I thought they responded with great focus. I was impressed with that.”

From his seat at the other end of the Wells Fargo Center, Brown too was impressed.